Armoured Warfare in the Vietnam War

By Michael Green

This pictorial history of the Indochina and Vietnam Wars captures the range of armored warfare used in the region through rare wartime photographs.

The two conflicts that engulfed Indochina and Vietnam in the decades after World War II are generally thought of as infantry wars. But in fact, they both involved a significant amount of armored warfare. In this fully illustrated volume, military expert and Vietnam veteran Michael Green describes the many kinds of armored vehicles deployed and their contributions in combat.

The ill-fated French Expeditionary Force of the Indochina War was largely equipped with World War II era American tanks—including M3 and M5 Stuart, M4 Sherman and M24 light tanks—as well as armored cars and half-tracks. Most of these eventually went to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, but were outdated and ineffective due to lack of logistics and training.

The US Army and Marine Corps build-up in the 1960s saw vast quantities of M48 Pattons, M113 APCs and many specialist variants and improvised armored vehicles arrive in the theatre. The Australians also brought their British Centurion tanks. But it was the Russians, Chinese and North Vietnamese who won the day and their T-38-85 tanks, ZSU anti-aircraft platforms.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781473840836

Michael Green

Michael Green (born 1930) was a British theologian, Anglican priest, Christian apologist and author of more than 50 books. He was Principal of St John's College, Nottingham (1969-75) and Rector of St Aldate's Church, Oxford and chaplain of the Oxford Pastorate (1975-86). He had additionally been an honorary canon of Coventry Cathedral from 1970 to 1978. He then moved to Canada where he was Professor of Evangelism at Regent College, Vancouver from 1987 to 1992. He returned to England to take up the position of advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York for the Springboard Decade of Evangelism. In 1993 he was appointed the Six Preacher of Canterbury Cathedral. Despite having officially retired in 1996, he became a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Evangelism and Apologetics at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford in 1997 and lived in the town of Abingdon near Oxford.

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Chapter One

Tanks

At the conclusion of the First World War in 1918, the French military began deploying a small number of FT-17 light tanks to the far reaches of its colonial empire. One such French colony that acquired the light tanks was Indochina. Indochina is an anachronistic term, but at that time encompassed a region that includes the current countries of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The modern name for the former Indochina region is Southeast Asia.

The FT-17 light tank was a two-man vehicle that weighed 15,432lb (7mt) and was powered by a gasoline engine that provided it a top speed of 4.7mph (7.7km/h). The operational range of the vehicle was approximately 22 miles (35km) on level roads. Armament on the FT-17 light tank was either a single 8mm machine-gun or a short-barrel 37mm main gun. Maximum armour thickness on the front of the vehicle was 22mm.

Twenty or so of the French military’s FT-17 light tanks survived in Indochina until early 1945. Half were stationed in the northern city of Hanoi and the other half in the southern city of Saigon. Due to the harsh local environmental weather conditions, the vehicles’ operational ready rates were extremely low. In a 1936 inspector-general’s report it was mentioned that the tanks were only run once a year on France’s Independence Day.

The seeds of conflict

The uneasy alliance between Japanese military forces and the French colonial military forces in Indochina that had been in effect since September 1940 came to an abrupt end in March 1945. At this point the Japanese overwhelmed and disarmed the French troops in Vietnam and sent them off to prisoner-of-war camps. The Japanese Army units stationed in Vietnam were assisted by their own tank units, equipped with the Type 95 light tank and the Type 89 medium tank.

The Type 95 light tank was a three-man vehicle that weighed 16,314lb (7.4mt) and was powered by a diesel engine that provided it a top speed of 28mph (45km/h). The operational range of the vehicle was approximately 156 miles (250km) on level roads. Armament on the Type 95 light tank consisted of a 37mm main gun and two 7.7mm Type 97 machine-guns. The maximum armour thickness on the front of the vehicle was 12mm. The Type-95 light tank entered Japanese Army service in 1935.

The Type 89 medium tank was a four-man vehicle that weighed 25,353lb (11.5mt) and was powered by a gasoline engine in early production units that was later replaced with a diesel engine. The operational range of the vehicle was approximately 100 miles (161km) on level roads. It was armed with a 57mm main gun and two 7.7mm machine-guns. Maximum armour thickness on the front of the Type 89 medium tank was 17mm. The vehicle first entered Japanese Army service in 1931.

With the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, the Japanese Government surrendered on 15 August 1945. To prevent Indochina from descending into chaos the Allies quickly deployed British Army Commonwealth units to the southern region of the colony and Nationalist Chinese Army units to the northern region of the colony. These forces were to remain in place until the French military could reestablish a presence in the region.

The First Indochina War

In the northern part of Indochina, the Chinese Nationalist Army units had little interest in preserving the status quo for the returning French military. In the resulting power vacuum, the Communist Viet Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) established itself as a dominant military and political force. The Viet Minh had less success in the southern part of Indochina due to the pro-French sympathy of the commander of the British Commonwealth units deployed there.

The first elements of the French Far East Expeditionary Force (CEFEO) landed in Indochina in October 1945 with the goal to retake the region. They brought along with them a small number of American-designed and built M5A1 light tanks. These tanks had been supplied to the Free French Army during the Second World War by the American Government under the Lend-Lease program.

The four-man M5A1 light tank weighed 34,700lb (15.7mt). Power for the vehicle came from two liquid-cooled gasoline engines that gave a top speed of 36mph (57.9km/h) and an operational range of approximately 100 miles (161km) on level roads. Armament consisted of a 37mm main gun and up to three .30 calibre (7.62mm) machine-guns, one being coaxial. The maximum armour thickness on the front of the M5A1 light tank was 51mm.

The M5A1 had been officially nicknamed the Stuart by the British during the Second World War. This was done in honour of J.E.B. Stuart, a famous American Civil War (1861–1865) Confederate cavalry commander. It was the British Army that assigned the names of famous American generals to American tanks and not the US Army, until late in the Second World War and thereafter. The production of the M5A1 light tank had begun for the US Army in November l943.

There was a tentative agreement reached with the French Government that the Viet Minh could become an autonomous member within the French Union, but this was not to be. In December 1946 fighting broke out between the CEFEO and the Viet Minh in what would become commonly known as the First Indochina War.

With the advantage provided by its armoured fighting vehicles, the CEFEO quickly pushed the Viet Minh out of Indochina’s urban areas and into the countryside where the Viet Minh began a guerrilla war. With the region’s limited road infrastructure – badly deteriorated during the Second World War – the CEFEO found the bulk of its forces road-bound and easy targets for Viet Minh ambushes and mines.

Lacking a sufficient number of American-supplied tanks to deal with the Viet Minh, the CEFEO pressed into service leftover Japanese tanks. The French military, between 1948 and 1949, also shipped a number of two-man Hotchkiss H-39 light tanks to Indochina. The vehicle had first entered French Army service prior to the German invasion of France in the summer of 1940.

The Hotchkiss H-39 light tank weighed 26,456lb (12mt) and was powered by a gasoline engine that gave it a top speed of 22.5mph (36km/h) and an approximate operational range of 93 miles (150km) on level roads. It was armed with a 37mm main gun and a single coaxial 7.5mm machine-gun. The maximum armour thickness on the front of the Hotchkiss H-39 light tank was 40mm.

The CEFEO also employed redundant turrets from some of its pre-Second World War tanks, such as the H-39 light tank and the Renault R-35 light tank in defensive positions in Indochina. Even the turret of a British Army Crusader tank, armed with a 2-pounder (40mm) main gun, was employed at a CEFEO defensive position outside the city of Hanoi.

More American tanks arrive

The Japanese and French tanks employed post-war by the FEF in Indochina were soon supplemented by additional American tanks, including the five-man M4 series medium tank. The Free French Army had received the diesel-engine M4A2 medium tanks during the Second World War through Lend-Lease. Some of these diesel tanks were later converted to gasoline post-war. The Free French Army was also supplied with the gasoline-engine M4A1 medium tank from US Army stockpiles in Western Europe during the Second World War. Pictorial evidence shows both the M4A1 and M4A2 being used by the FEF in Indochina.

The M4 series medium tanks began rolling off the factory floor in 1942 for the US Army and, later, the US Marine Corps. They were armed with either a 75mm or 76mm main gun, two .30 calibre machine-guns (one being the coaxial) and sometimes a single .50 calibre (12.7mm) machine-gun on the turret roof. The maximum armour thickness on the front of the M4 series medium tank was 75mm. Delete

The gasoline-engine-powered M4A1 weighed 66,800lb (30mt), had a top speed of 24mph (39km/h) and an approximate operational range of 120 miles (193km) on level roads. The twin diesel-engine-powered M4A2 had a top speed of 25mph and an approximate operational range of 150 miles (241km) on level roads due to the greater thermal efficiency of diesel fuel.

The M4 series medium tank was officially nick-named the Sherman by the British during the Second World War in honour of famous American Civil War Union general, William Tecumseh Sherman. The American military began using the name Sherman late in the Second World War.

The American-supplied replacements to the CEFEO for their aging inventory of M5A1 light tanks and M4 series medium tanks proved to be the M24 light tank. The four-man vehicle weighed 40,500lb (18mt) and was powered by two gasoline engines that gave it a top speed of 35mph (56km/h) and an operational range of approximately 100 miles (161km) on level roads. The vehicle was armed with a 75mm main gun and two .30 calibre machine-guns (one being the coaxial) and often a single .50 calibre machine-gun mounted on the turret roof. Maximum armour thickness on the front of the M24 light tank was 38mm.

The M24 light tank first entered service with the US Army in Western Europe in December 1944. It was seen by the American tankers as a big improvement over the M5A1 light tank as it fired a very effective high-explosive (HE) round. However, it still lacked an armour-piercing (AP) round for the main gun able to penetrate the frontal armour on late-war German tanks and self-propelled guns. The M24 light tank was officially nick-named the Chaffee in honour of Major General Adna R. Chaffee. He was the first commander of the US Army’s Armoured Force formed in July 1940 shortly after the successful German invasion of France in May 1940.

The strangest use of the M24 light tank occurred when the CEFEO had ten of them disassembled and flown into their surrounded military base at Dien Bien Phu piece-by-piece and then re-assembled. They were intended to provide much needed mobile fire support for the troops stationed there. That effort was for naught as the Viet Minh captured the base in May 1954. The French Government had pushed for United States military intervention at Dien Bien Phu but this was not to happen as the American Government decided it might have provoked the outbreak of a Third World War in Europe.

A summary of the CEFEO employment of armour in the First Indochina War appeared in this extract from an American Government publication entitled Armored Combat in Vietnam, authored by General Donn A. Starry and published in 1989:

To the French command, improvised in all resources, fighting with limited equipment over a large area, the employment [of armor] became a perpetual headache. Armored units were fragmented; many